The life of Maurice Sendak proves to be just as delightful and eclectic as the characters in the famous children’s author’s books. Directed by Spike Jonze, for under an hour we are given a look into the life of Sendak as cameras are invited into his home. As I hit play on the documentary, I was expecting a more child-friendly film, but what I watched instead was a portrait of an old crotchety man who used his life and his work to untangle the knotty adult themes of death, sexuality, and more.
In the midst of the cursing, the musings about his mortality, and others, there are glimmers of the sentimentality that made him one of the most beloved writers and illustrators in children’s literature. At the end of the film when he speculates why he always chooses to write about childhood when the rest of his life is just as rich with experience he says “maybe that’s where my heart is.”
